In the Kitchen: Baked Potato

by Emily on April 3, 2012

I’ve been feeling in a rut lately with my meal selection but one dinner that always makes me happy is the classic baked potato. Maybe it’s the weather that is so rainy then beautiful sun, but on a cold, blustery day this meal feels hearty, warm and full of selection. This is a classic meal from my past. I grew up competitive swimming, and our club sold 50 lb bags of potatoes as a fundraiser each year. Not only did we have our work cut out on our dry land workout hauling these from truck-to-garage but we also ate a lot of them. My Mom was the Potato organizer for many years so our garage was filled with lots and lots of these 50 lb bags!

Do I have any tricks of my trade? Well, I do believe the best way to bake the potato is to rub the outside skins with olive oil and salt/pepper and pop in the oven at 350 for about an hour. This olive oil rub does require a baking sheet on the rack below the potatoes on the rack to make sure your oven doesn’t light up on fire. My favorite potato has to be the Yukon Gold. It’s delicious and when you cut in, the buttery yellow insides look like it’s already dressed in butter.

So, let’s talk fillings….what do you put in yours? I’m a sucker for toppings (tacos, ice cream etc) so I usually have a hard time not putting them all on. Some of my favorites include chili, sour cream, chopped bacon, green onions, cheese, salt/pepper.

I found a list of some common fillings that I scoured the web for that you might find interesting to jazz up your potato dinner! I wouldn’t necessarily like them all but hey, that’s up for you to decide!

Cheese

Baked Beans (a favorite in jacket potato land-England)

Sausage & Beans

Coleslaw (again another favorite in jacket potato land)

Bacon

Cream cheese & chives

Broccoli

Salsa

Cottage Cheese

Hot sauce

Lemon juice

Mushrooms

Ranch

Greek Yogurt

Ketchup (seriously people)

Hope this helps if you’re feeling in a rut too! Oh and if you’re Portuguese and don’t know, you can eat the skin too! Just make sure you wash before you bake. I kinda forgot that this may be an American/English meal before I served this with Andrea present. She probably thought we were weird…